Pushgateway vs Zabbix
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Zabbix
Enterprise-grade open-source monitoring solution
| Feature | Pushgateway | Zabbix |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | Go Template |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,369 | ★ 6,411 |
| First released | 2015 | 2001 |
| Replaces | Datadog | Datadog, Nagios |
What are Pushgateway and Zabbix?
Pushgateway
The Prometheus Pushgateway allows ephemeral and batch jobs to expose their metrics to Prometheus. Jobs push metrics to the gateway, which Prometheus then scrapes on its regular schedule.
- Accepts pushed metrics
- Bridges batch jobs to Prometheus
- Persists metrics to disk
- Tiny footprint
Zabbix
Zabbix is an enterprise-class monitoring solution for networks, servers, cloud, and applications with deep alerting. It targets organizations needing comprehensive infrastructure monitoring. It is deployed via Docker or native packages.
- Agent and agentless monitoring
- Powerful triggers and alerting
- Network discovery and maps
- Highly scalable
Pushgateway vs Zabbix: key differences
Pushgateway is written in Go, while Zabbix is built with Go Template. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Pushgateway versus AGPL-3.0 for Zabbix. Pushgateway is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Zabbix. Zabbix is the more established project (first released 2001), while Pushgateway arrived in 2015.
Why pick each one
Choose Pushgateway if…
- Solves batch job monitoring
- Simple to run
Watch out for
- Not for high-frequency metrics
- Can become a single point of failure
Choose Zabbix if…
- Comprehensive and mature
- Scales to large estates
- Fully free
Watch out for
- Steep learning curve
- Dated interface
Frequently asked questions
Is Pushgateway or Zabbix better?
Neither is universally better. Zabbix has the larger community, while Pushgateway is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Pushgateway and Zabbix free and open-source?
Yes. Pushgateway is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Zabbix under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Pushgateway and Zabbix with Docker?
Pushgateway: yes. Zabbix: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Pushgateway or Zabbix?
Pushgateway has the smaller minimum footprint at 32 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Zabbix. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.